Minor keys?

What's a minor key? Ok, well, I know how key signatures work, I think. I know that when you're in say, the key of C, all of the possible chords are made up of the notes in a C scale, like Cmaj, Amin, Fmaj, etc. And I know that each major chord has a relative minor, so in this case, that would be Amin. So, how does the key of Cmaj differ from Amin? Wouldn't they have the same notes in them?

Originally posted by Ed Fuqua ...The key of A whatever, the dominant chord is going to be E7 (E G# B D). And that gives us our Old Friend, the tonic minor chord. Because of the G# (which is not in the key signature, right?), they call this modal interchange. It means that since the function that you need in the key doesn't exist in the key, you can "borrow"it from another modality (in this case the modes of the melodic minor scale).

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I'm a little confused by this. Do you mean the key of A minor's dominant chord is E7, or A major? Cuz I'm thinking A major and G# is in that key. I think I'm missing something here, though. I've never heard of tonic minor chord before, heh....and which melodic minor scale are we 'borrowing' from?

Here's where our old friend, functional harmony comes in.
You will remember that one thing that helps "establish" a key is the tendency of the sounds of notes played at the same time (chords) to be stable or unstable and desirious of being stable (wanting to resolve). Well, the strongest resolution is that of a dominant chord to a tonic chord. In the key of Cmajor it's evident enough, G7 to Cmaj7. But the minor key? Forget about notes for a minute, just think about patterns of resolution. The strongest resolution V7 to tonic. The key of A whatever, the dominant chord is going to be E7 (E G# B D). And that gives us our Old Friend, the tonic minor chord. Because of the G# (which is not in the key signature, right?), they call this modal interchange. It means that since the function that you need in the key doesn't exist in the key, you can "borrow"it from another modality (in this case the modes of the melodic minor scale).

you know something? i designed this nickname (ie. i actually sat down with a piece of paper and all manner of funky stationary) specifically in order to avoid the patented "NAME BASTARDIZATION 101" techniques of TOUCHING UP GURRLS and his sensei, DREAD RHUBARB

as if living with little to no knowledge of functional harmony (not to mention the fact that i've lost my lighter) wasn't bad enough...

Originally posted by *ToNeS*
you know something? i designed this nickname (ie. i actually sat down with a piece of paper and all manner of funky stationary) specifically in order to avoid the patented "NAME BASTARDIZATION 101" techniques of TOUCHING UP GURRLS and his sensei, DREAD RHUBARB

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*StOnEd*,

Didn't seem to work too well, did it? The best laid plans of mice, men, and clueless Aussies and all that....

Back to the subject at hand, I think that the real answer about minor is to be found in the entirety of the "Legit" Melodic Minor scale. Most of the time in minor, it's only the dominant function (V7 and viidim7) chords which use the leading tone consistently. The whole "i miMa7" chord is more of a color choice, and I find that I hardly ever see the III7+ chord in tunes. To me, minor is about the following scale degrees: 1, 2, b3, 4, and 5...after that, you can use either b6 or 6, and then either b7 or 7 (or any combination of the above), based on whatever you're trying to get across at that point. I often feel like all of these different minor scale forms are just a big waste of time since Natural, Harmonic, Dorian, and Melodic ascending can all be found as subsets of the scale mentioned above. Why learn four different scales when you can just toggle a couple of notes from a large-scale tonality one way or the other?

Most of the time in minor, it's only the dominant function (V7 and viidim7) chords which use the leading tone consistently

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It's not just the leading tone that gives, as Ed says

You will remember that one thing that helps "establish" a key is the tendency of the sounds of notes played at the same time (chords) to be stable or unstable and desirious of being stable (wanting to resolve).

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It is the presence of the tritone (aug 4th) between the 3rd and 7th degrees of a domiant 7th chord that create the tension and desire for resolution

Enharmonic spellings are basically The same notes just "spelled" differently. A# is essentially the same thing as Bb.. This is for ease of reading a piece and chord spelling.. would you rather see C major or B#major?

Originally posted by Ed Fuqua Why don't you make fun of me for being old?

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Fine. But I'm not enjoying this.

Haha! You're old!

Happy?

Old people, huh? Your parents come to you and say "Respect your elders", and you do, 'cause it seems like a good idea you know, they're old, they're confused and don't really know what's going on in the world anymore. So we ease off on them. And then what happens? Old geezer: "Make fun of me for being old. When I was your age I made fun of old people, why won't you?".